Musical mastermind Devin Townsend recently shared some very introspective thoughts about touring as a part of Freqs TV's "Ghosts of the Road" series.

Brutal honesty and standard Hevy Devy awesomeness make this one a must-see. You can check out the partial transcript below, but we highly recommend watching the clip.
"I'm not a very team-minded person, although as a boss I've learned become one, I think," Devin kicked off. "I've learned to understand the value of morale and where my place relegates my emotional connection to the guys. You find ways to integrate yourself into the team."

"It's a long process, learning to become part of something, and to compromise, and where your shortcomings are and how to get the result that I want from a group of people without being a tyrant.""It's a job, there's an element to it that's a lot of fun. A lot of the time the fun ends up being a result of trying to maintain either a productive frame of mind or morale within the group."
"Although a lot of the things that you find yourself doing on tour from the outside appear to be a party, it's more about trying to keep your frame of mind positive, because it's very easy in a group of human beings, specifically in a group of males, to find yourself getting depressed."

"You're away from home, you're away from being able to deal with problems that arise at home and children and family and wives and girlfriends and all those sorts of things."
"Everybody deals with it differently - some people escape, be that drugs or alcohol or women or anything like this, and other find themselves getting really insular; others will find themselves really engaged in the work, several of my guys do the tech work as well and they get paid an additional salary to do that, but it keeps their mind occupied so they don't fall into that trap."
"For myself, I play guitar and write, but not consciously, I don't do it in a way like I would at home, it's something that I do more as a meditative process."

He continued, "I find the biggest hurdle to be social etiquette and social responsibilities that unless I'm touring I don't have or engage in whatsoever. So the transition period from being completely on my own or with family to be traveling with people and small talk and editing my moods and being around a bunch of new people and then the focus of a ton of attention is really... it's not impossible, but it's a transition that usually takes upwards of two weeks to completely integrate and at that point you find ways to emotionally protect yourself, ironically in those very ways you find yourself at a disadvantage when you get home because you're unable to connect yourself to the people that deserve it the most."